Choosing a ruby Trollbead

I have the day off and there are thunderstorms so naturally I am trolling on the 'net. Next month is July, my sons' birthdays, and to celebrate, I am eyeing the ruby bead for myself. With no dealers other than silver nearby, I have to order online or take a long trip. Since this is a pricey bead, it would make sense to get one in real life, but there is no guarantee that any store will have a selection of nice ones from which to choose. For those of you who have the ruby: what should I be looking and asking for if I call stores or purchase online? I have never seen one in real life so how much variation is there in the stones? Did you get yours in person or purchase by mail? Thanks in advance!

Could you ask your LD to order you one? And then if you don't like it IRL, it could be sent back???

mmm thats what I would do, at least be in the position to select from a few. Ive been quite disappointed in the quality of amethyst beads so I can only imagine the quality of ruby? To me a good ruby would be way above what TB's sell them for. However the ruby seems to be opaque on the beads and though this may make it a ruby.. to me Ruby is red and clear perhaps a bit cloudy but like emeralds you got good stones and bad stones same as for all gemstones.. May I suggest you look at ruby rings first, than compare the quality and stone to the size of stone (sacrificing the centre for the core) you would get of TB. Only then you can shop and feel perhaps comfortable enough to spend your money on such an expensive bead. Also look at ruby pendants set in silver.. some prices may surprise you.. however knowledge is everything..

When I bought mine, I had a trusted shop I use in Germany order in the best 2 from their distributor. Then I chose the best one from the pictures. Both were quite nice and better quality than I had seen in many other TB Rubies. At the time the distributor said they weren't getting in many new Rubies as Troll was having trouble finding high enough quality stone.

The Troll Rubies are a rough cut lower quality Ruby, so you get the opaque look - a high quality Ruby of that size would be worth thousands.

More Info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby

And a picture of my Ruby at play:

I agree rainyday... HQ ruby would be thousands, you just got to make sure you feel happy with spending that much money for a single bead..

I asked my LD to get one in so I could look at it and decide, I told them I wanted deep colour and no cracks, of course when it arrived I loved it !
Like you I could have found it a bit cheaper on line, but there would have been no point in that if I hadn't been happy with it.

Found a picture

i would want to see it in person (or maybe in really good photos) because the ones i have seen so far are almost always very matte and the edges of the facets even white

Thanks for all your input. I am thinking that I should wait and choose this one in person. I've been checking out the pictures in various forums and some seem definitely richer in color. Asking a nearby dealer to order one probably won't happen. My LD stopped selling TBs and another shop I liked downtown closed. The closest independent dealer is in a touristy town and their service is lacking. The only other options in the area are chain stores and their staff is quite clueless, usually pleading ignorance because "corporate does the buying".

agatha wrote:i would want to see it in person (or maybe in really good photos) because the ones i have seen so far are almost always very matte and the edges of the facets even white

Yes, I saw this in some photos. Actually, i quite like the organic look of the opaque stone. A clearer one would be prohibitively expensive and too much like a prism. I would love to find one with a blood-red richness like Fuzzyfeet's!

I found one similar to Fuzzyfeets at my LD when I wasn't looking for one. I had previously been looking but the Rubies I had seen looked small and too rough. This bead though, really stood out on the display and was so beautiful that I just had to have it.

The ruby is just one of those beads that I would LOVE to have! I just haven't been able to justify it, and the price just seems to keep going up...

I have always had good luck ordering directly from Trollbeads in Denmark, back when you could order on their site. I would send an e-mail to information and tell them what I wanted, and someone would find it for me and send it. I don't know if you can order online from them any more, but that's how I ended up with a "more red than orange" Red Symmetry...

While I have been "bead making incapacitated"...I had alot of time on my hands. Someone asked me about rubies a while back, so I set out to try and find some...and sapphires. Well, I located a fabulous source and managed to purchase a few. I'm very happy with the color, and there are no black lines in them. Now if I can ever get my dang hand working again to try and drill these jewels...I will be most happy. Rubies are one of my fav stones!! Just for reference here are a couple of pics, and one of the sapphires too.

Oooh, Trolldog, those are gorgeous!! the rubies look like the yummy plump cherries that are in season now. And that celestial sapphire is TDF! Hope you are healing well - you must be chomping the bit to resume bead-making! I will certainly be in line for your beauties.

I would love to have one these beauties....and my birthstone is a ruby! how fitting! haha